212 EASTERN ARCTOG^A. [CHAP. V. 



include a considerable number of genera now mainly confined to 

 tropical or subtropical countries, the rodent fauna exhibits a 

 marked Palsearctic facies, thus indicating an approximation to the 

 existing state of things. Among the extinct rodents, Pellegrinia, 

 from the Sardinian Pliocene, belongs, however, to the Octodontida, 

 and is probably allied to the existing African Ctenodactylus. Tro- 

 gontherium is a gigantic extinct type of beaver, which also persisted 

 into the Plistocene. The deer include northern types unknown 

 in the lower Pliocene. 



One of the most remarkable features of this fauna is the 

 occurrence of a large species of sElurus, a genus represented 

 elsewhere only by the cat-bear or panda (^E. fulgens) of the 

 eastern Himalaya, which, although formerly regarded as the type 

 of a family by itself, is now included in the American Procyonidce 

 (raccoons). The fossil species has been hitherto detected only in 

 the English Crag ; the genus may, however, be expected to occur 

 in the Siwaliks, since it is quite clear that it must have been 

 originally connected with the American representatives of the 

 family by forms inhabiting Eastern Asia. 



With the end of the Pliocene epoch this brief survey of the 

 Tertiary mammalian faunas of Eastern Arctogaea may be brought 

 to a close, since the Plistocene mammals can be more con- 

 veniently considered under the headings of the different regions of 

 this great province. While throughout the Oligocene, Miocene, 

 and lower Pliocene epochs no trace of the present zoological 

 regions of this half of the Arctogseic realm is shown, when the 

 Upper Pliocene is reached there are faint indications of the 

 demarcation of the Eastern Holarctic. At the time of the Plisto- 

 cene, as will be shown in a later chapter, the Eastern Holarctic, 

 Oriental and Ethiopian regions appear to have assumed a still 

 more marked distinction, although this is to a great extent 

 obscured by the wide range even at that epoch of genera like 

 Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros, Elephas, Macacus, etc. Moreover, 

 several species which are now confined to one of the three regions 

 in question had then a more extensive distribution, so that it is 

 only during the recent epoch that the Holarctic, Oriental, and 

 Ethiopian regions attained the full faunistic peculiarities by which 

 they are now characterised. 



